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This really pissed me off today. I made an application for a copywriter/marketing/sales assistant on oDesk posted by a certain James Smith. It says on his profile that he’s from an Australian company. So he contacted me via email and asked for my resume. Then yesterday, someone contacted me via SMS asking if I’m available for an interview. This is just for a part-time job, probably 2 hours a day mind you. The interview happened today. I was surprised because it was a Filipina and she said she’s from a Filipino company called VOA. I was confused, I though I was applying for an Australian company. Then she said I was referred online. I asked her what she means by that. Turns out the guy who posted the job opening on oDesk was just doing referrals. I was already on the verge of telling the girl I don’t want o go through the interview anymore, but I was playing it nice.

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So here’s how our conversation went:

VOA: so I have your resume here, can you tell me more about your work experience as a virtual assistant in *** and as an article writer in ***?

Me: I worked for *** as a virtual assistant for almost a year doing blah, blah, blah (entailing my tasks). For ***, I was writing articles for a website called How To Do Things. Blah, blah, blah (telling her about the kind of articles I wrote).

VOA: Oh ok, good. we’re actually looking for article writers for our company. This job is for inside our company and not for a client. I see here you have experience as an article writer. Can you tell me more about that.

(I was already getting a headache at this point because of her. I just told her about my work experience as an article.)

Me: Yes, that was what I said earlier. (So basically I had to repeat what I told her earlier) I was writing articles for a website called How To Do Things. Blah, blah, blah (telling her about the kind of articles I wrote).

VOA: What school are you from?

(I seriously wanted to answer her with something like “I thought you had my resume?”)

Me: I studied college in ***.

VOA: If you were to write an article about our company, what would be its title?

Me: I think that would be a very good question once I get to know more about your company. I don’t think I could write about something I’m not familiar with.

VOA: How proficient are you in using the computer and MS Word to write articles?

(This was the last straw. I’ve been working for almost a year as a virtual assistant. Prior to that, I was working in a call center for 5 years. And lastly, I studied BS Computer Science in college. What makes you think I don’t have experience using MS Word?)

Me: I studied BS Computer Science in college, so yes, you can say I’m very proficient in using the computer.

Seriously?! Just a piece of advice for companies. I’m no expert in recruitment, but getting people like her to interview your applicants is such an epic fail. The interviewer makes a huge impression about your company. Get people who knows what they’re doing. Interviewers, please try to review your applicants resume. My resume was just a 1 page doc, thus giving her no reason to not see my background information. Don’t ask questions which are obviously stated in the resume. It just makes you look stupid. Are you seriously gonna ask someone who studied Computer Science if they are proficient in using MS Word to write articles? Hell I could even write programs for you lol!